Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2004. Vol. 4. Eger Journal of English Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 30)
TIBOR TÓTH Beckett and the Poetics of the Absurd
34 Tibor Tóth 'can't' and 'must' are. The mental process is surprised as "the mind annulled / wrecked in the wind." The reason is that Beckett wants to introduce the meeting with the child: I stopped and climbed the bank to see the game. A child fidgeting at the gate called up: "Would we be let in Mister?" "Certainly" I said "you would." But, afraid, he set off down the road. "Well" I called after him "why wouldn't you go in?" "oh" he said, knowingly, "I was in that field before and I got put out." So on derelict, [...] ( Versek , 22) The final poetic gesture of "Enueg P is directed both towards the sea that lies downstream and encompasses the whole world and towards non-being, which to the suffering protagonist seems a desirable ideal: Blotches of doomed yellow in the pit of the Liffey; the fingers of the ladders hooked over the parapet, soliciting; a slush of vigilant gulls in the gay spew of the sewer. Ah the banner the banner of meat bleeding on the silk of the seas and the arctic flowers that do not exist. (Versek } 24) The journeys around Dublin, in the west of Ireland, London and Paris are explorations in a poetic manner marked by juxtapositions which interrupt and subvert any narrative progress. He does not use italics to separate the English, German, Englished Greek and Latin words, since the text thus composed can both withhold and explain the sexuality governing the poems. In "Serena P in "her dazzling oven storm of peristalsis / limae labor", the goat in "Enueg P is "remotely pucking the gate of his field" and so on. The meaning does not vanish through this method, but the pretended desire to hide sexuality tells of self-censorship, which in turn means the acknowledgment of social codes. Puritanism and lustiness seem to be exclusive and the material treated thus dictates the ambivalence of expression. Cultural references and more or less veiled quotations are also source of ambivalence. Beckett juxtaposes their individual significances creating new meanings. A good example is when in the introductory lyric passage of 1 1 Sanies P cycles through the north Dublin countryside:
